A fugitive recovery attempt by a Gwinnett County bounty hunter almost ended with obstruction charges against a nurse at Barrow Regional Medical Center. The bounty hunter called the Sheriff’s Office after a confrontation with the ER charge nurse.

The bounty hunter said he received a tip that the man he was attempting to locate was in the emergency room. The bounty hunter went to the emergency room and placed the suspect in handcuffs.

The ER charge nurse then ordered the bounty hunter to remove the handcuffs and leave the emergency room. The bounty hunter immediately complied and notified authorities that a wanted man was at the hospital.

When the first deputy arrived at the hospital, he attempted to question the charge nurse about the suspect, Marquise Williams, 20, of 366 Glenmoor Place in Winder. Williams was wanted on two outstanding warrants – one for felony probation violation and one for failure to appear.

The nurse refused to answer the deputy’s questions and would not allow the deputy to speak with Williams. The deputy requested a Sheriff’s Office supervisor come to the hospital to assist.

When the supervisor arrived, he asked the charge nurse for her identification in order to obtain information for the incident report. The nurse demanded to know why he needed her information and said she would speak to her boss first. The nurse’s boss, the hospital’s chief nursing officer, wanted to know why the deputy could not use the hospital’s contact information instead of the nurse’s personal information.

The deputy explained why he needed the information and requested to see the charge nurse’s driver’s license. Instead of handing over the license, the chief nursing officer began reading the information off the license to the deputy. When the deputy asked for the charge nurse’s address, the chief nursing officer attempted to provide the hospital’s address. At that point, the deputy instructed the chief nursing officer to hand over the license which she “reluctantly” did, according to the report.

Both the charge nurse and the chief nursing officer continued to cite HIPPA rules as their reason for not providing any information about Williams.

The deputy explained the law regarding obstruction of a law enforcement officer and that Williams had two valid warrants for his arrest and that, as law enforcement officers, they had the right to seek Williams out wherever he may be. The deputy further explained that they had no intention of denying Williams medical treatment. The deputy said he did not need to know anything about Williams’ condition, only when he would be released.

The charge nurse and the chief nursing officer said HIPPA rules prevented them from disclosing that information.

Finally, the chief nursing officer agreed to check into whether or not the rules would allow them to notify the deputy before Williams was discharged. The hospital’s risk assessment department confirmed that it would be acceptable to notify authorities when a patient with active warrants was being released.

Once Williams was released, he was immediately taken into custody.

Other recent arrests made by Barrow County Sheriff’s deputies include: